Upgrade smelly Yonkers sewer plant

This was one of the worst summers in Ludlow Park. The smell had been constant and unbearable at times.

I complained by phone, through the website, and usually have been treated courteously.

Representatives of the plant sometimes come to my door to discuss the odor - but, often, the smell has gone by the time they arrive. And then it returns.

Even when it has caused me to feel ill it has been so strong, I cannot be sure that it will still be there by the time the plant workers come to check. It smothers the train platform, surrounds me as I walk along Sunnyside Drive and envelops my whole house.

But it comes and goes, and I have no way of demonstrating how awful it is.

So I am grateful to Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and Councilman Michael Sabatino for drawing attention to this problem, and I hope this time we can persuade the county to manage the waste treatment issue more effectively.

There are techniques that can mitigate the smell, and we should demand they are used.

It is not enough to keep patching an old plant designed to deal with much smaller amounts of waste.

We need a new system that does not foul the air we breathe and poison our lives with sewage smells. Westchester County should stop dumping so much waste on southwest Yonkers until it's done.